This year marks Jaguar's 75th birthday. But rather than invite a couple of close mates round, sip Earl Grey and grow old gracefully, it's gone and unveiled a bonkers new concept sports car known as the C-X75, and we've got video of it in action.
The car is a range-extended electric vehicle -- a type of hybrid that's driven primarily by electric motors, but whose batteries can be recharged by a separate onboard engine, which in this case takes the form of two gas turbines. Yes, that's a type of jet engine.
As you'll discover in the video above (why are you even still reading this?), the car lives up to its jet billing. Attached to each wheel is a 195bhp electric motor. These motors can drive the car on electric power, stored in a lithium-ion battery pack, for 68 miles. When the power dies, the battery can be topped up via the mains or, more impressively, via the aforementioned gas turbines, located at the rear.
These activate in stages -- first one and then the other -- to provide supplemental battery power, but they can also be used to drive the wheels directly when you mash the accelerator pedal. At full pelt, the car will complete the 0-60mph sprint in a spine-bending 3.4 seconds, go from 50-90mph in 2.3 seconds, reach a top speed of 205mph and complete a quarter-mile dash in 10.3 seconds -- so it's quicker than almost anything on four wheels.
The car's remarkably economical, too. The gas turbines can run on just about any sort of fuel, including diesel, biofuels, compressed natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas. Driving frugally, the C-X75 has a maximum range of 560 miles and emits a relatively paltry 28g/km of CO2, which is quite extraordinary.
source: crave.cnet.co.uk
